Changing End Credits Music

[honorableensign]

I've been looking through the old dialogue and music replacement threads, but I'm having some problems understanding and finding the bits of hex I need to change.  (Or maybe this is all done differently with DLC now, but I don't know anything about how to do that.  And I've had some problems with DLC of the Extended Cut working properly, so I'd rather just switch out files.)

Anyway, I think I've already got my music in the pcc file I want, as I want to change it to Reignite and I have an old MEHEM version of BioD_End002_610EpilogueRed.pcc, which is where the Reignite credits music is (unless anyone knows differently.)  So I just need to edit the DLC_CON_END_SFX.afc to pick up the new music.

That's where I'm having the trouble.  The music's not in the afc file at the end, since I haven't added it.  I'm still having some trouble locating mus_end_dlc_credits_wav in the hex of the pcc file so I can copy it over, and I'm not sure if I can just add it to the end or if I have to place it within a specific place in the afc file. 

And I think I also need to add a data fragment of the music to a certain place in the afc too?  If anybody can clarify and suggest the easiest ways to do this, I'd appreciate it.

[deager]

I'd say Fob's old tutorial, which is linked at the beginning of this thread.
me3explorer.freeforums.org/how-to-change-the-music-in-mehem-t1012.html
The thread I wrote gets into a specific aspect of it.

Bottom line, is that it's tedious. It's just really a pain to be candid. I've found that 610 and the ending files of 720/730 need to be changed. When you find the offset of the music, using soundplorer, in 610/720/730, then copy the first 40 bytes or so from the afc file and search for those bytes in the 610/720/730 file.

If you're changing the end credits music for the Extended Cut DLC, then this mod might help. Granted, it's main purpose is to get you to the Citadel DLC but it can be tweaked to get you back to the main menu instead.
www.nexusmods.com/masseffect3/mods/357/?

[honorableensign]

720 and 730'd be the Blue and Green ending files, right? I'm okay with just changing the music for the Red ending (I think it fits best for that anyway.) I suppose I'll get silence then for the credits of my Shepherds who choose Blue, but most of them pick Red.

I've looked over the old tutorial, but let me make sure I'm understanding things correctly. Am I finding the offset of the Wwise bank, or the wav file? What exactly do I change in DLC_CON_END_SFX.afc so it'll pick up the new music? Do I have to insert the new music (and how much of it) to a certain place, or can I just stick it on the end?

I've tried the main menu fix, but unfortunately I've changed my game enough from the original Extended Cut (no Stargazer scene) that it doesn't pick up the music correctly.

[giftfish]

If I remember right, the red ending doesn't use the music in the CON_END afc, it uses the version in the Wwise_mainmenu_streaming.afc. Almost certain that's what I found back when working on it for TMv1.0.

[deager]

I have found that the extended cut uses the afc from its own DLC, but the wwise still is "streaming" in the background, which is why when people end the credits early from MEHEM or whatever, you hear a little bit of the original music.

For you honorableensign, I'll take a look when I get some time. You are looking for the offset of the wav file in the afc file. Then, using the first 40 or so bytes from the offset in the afc file, you then go back to the pcc file and find those bytes. That's how you are manually messing with the wwise bank. The way you figure out how many bytes you need is to search for "RIFF" to find the next entry after the one you found....take a look.

If it's still not making sense I'll try to make some time to help you out. But you really could use the Extended Cut to Citadel DLC mod I made, install the Reignite option, and then we'd just change one object in a few pcc files to point to the EntryMenu instead of BioP_CEM

[giftfish]

deager -- I'm not sure we are saying the same thing, so to clarify, I dug back into the TMv1.0 release folder to take a look.

Since Fob works off the Green/Blue endings for MEHEM (uh, if memory serves), the TMv1.0 credits music that's compatible with MEHEM is supplied with only a modded DLC_CON_END_SFX.afc. However, the EC version of TMv1.0 is supplied with both this file AND Wwise_main_menu_streaming.afc. This is content that Fob supplied me with -- I didn't mod it myself. He had to do it that way specifically b/c the Red ending references the music in that AFC rather than CON_END. More importantly, that AFC can't be edited by DLC mods b/c the game will load it out of the base cooked before any DLC mods load. So, the only way to get new credits music in the EC Red ending (which I think is what the OP is trying to do), is to mod THAT file, and leave it inside the base cooked. Replacement inside CON_END won't work. This is what had to be done for TMv1.0 EC users.

Here's an old post where you and I discuss that a bit, when I was attempting to update TMv2.0 and Fob wasn't around. It continues a bit further down the page. And here's a different post by Fob a couple pages later that explains the difference with Destroy, as well, and goes into more technical details.

If the OP has MEHEM installed and is working on modifying that, then please ignore this post, as I've misunderstood the situation. I thought she was trying to pull the MEHEM music to use it the standard EC.

[deager]

Weird. With all the transition mods from the Extended CUT, LIME, JAM, and MEHEM, I've never had to mess with the wwise_main_menu_streaming.afc file. I just did it for OCD reasons with LIME. I also have to double check, but I thought I had wwise_main_menu_streaming.afc streaming instead of the base file because if people click the "credits" option from the main menu, the correct music plays when I changed the wwise afc...which I know conflicts with what Fob had experienced.

Well, regardless of what all is going on, I still think the easiest solution is to use the Extended Cut to Citadel DLC mod I made, install with the Reignite option, and then I can help point the area_transition in the file to the EntryMenu.pcc. And just watch, I'll find out something is wrong despite all my tests working before with that thing.

[honorableensign]

Hmm, interesting. Part of the issue is that I'm neither using MEHEM nor vanilla EC, but just bits of MEHEM (including trying to get the its credit music.) So I don't think I have to worry about using Wwise_main_menu_streaming.afc.

This is also the reason I can't straight up use the EC to Citadel mod, as the transition to the splash screen works but because of skipping Stargazer and such the timing doesn't work out with the music somehow. Although, now I'm wondering...what parts of the EC to C mod do I actually need for the credits music? If I delete the parts I don't, will everything crash in flames, or will the previous EC files take over? Or might creating the mod using modified files work?

[giftfish]

May 9, 2017 2:10:27 GMT honorableensign said:

Hmm, interesting. Part of the issue is that I'm neither using MEHEM nor vanilla EC, but just bits of MEHEM (including trying to get the its credit music.) So I don't think I have to worry about using Wwise_main_menu_streaming.afc.

You mentioned the destroy ending, so if you aren't using MEHEM and plan to use destroy in your PTs, that uses the files with "Red"  in the name. These are what result in the Wwise_main_menu_streaming.afc having control over the music played. So, if you end up getting the music replaced in the CON_END.afc and it doesn't work, look to the main menu AFC instead.

[honorableensign]

I've modified the EC to use the green memorial with Shepherd (ala MEHEM.) I guess the red memorial is what triggers the main menu AFC, since neither the red memorial pcc nor the main menu afc is in MEHEM and the credits music still works.

Anyway, it occurred to me that the JAM music change mod also has the credits music loaded in the epilogue file and Reignite connected in a separate afc. I don't have JAM, so I don't need the memorial pccs, however. So is there some way I can only use those certain files?

[honorableensign]

Success (ish.) I was able to use the files from the JAM music change mod, and it worked to change the credits music--but I lost the epilogue slides music (some mismatch between my files and the actual JAM, I guess.) I still get Hackett's voiceover, so I might just go with that, unless anyone has ideas or files that'd help.

[honorableensign]

Actual success success! I checked with Soundplorer, and sure enough the wav for the red epilogue seems to be the only bit that connects to the JAM afc instead of DLC_CON_END. So I loaded JAM, but got rid of any files that I thought might conflict or change with my files, updated the TOC.bin, and it works! Now I've got the new epilogue slide music and Reignite in the credits. I also ran a Shepherd through the Blue ending, and that worked as well.